“5 starting players playing 50+ minutes? That’s just incredible!”: The Toronto Raptors starting five created history against the Miami Heat

The Toronto Raptors just put in a performance of a lifetime – it translated to a massive win.

Since the introduction of the shot clock 80 something years ago, the only team to have their 5 starters to have played 50+ minutes is the 2021-22 Toronto Raptors. Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, O.G. Anunoby, Gary Trent Jr. and Scottie Barnes were the players to achieve this feat.

This came against the Miami Heat in Florida, where both the teams battled it out in a playoff level intense game. There was no breaking the deadlock in the regulation time and two OTs. It took until the final seconds of the 3rd overtime for the Canadian team to gain advantage over the Heat. The Raptors roster is currently very thin, and the starters had to take the minimal rotation into their stride.

They almost lost the game in the 2nd OT, if not for the erroneous call  to have a time out in the last second of the 2nd OT. The shot fell to give the Heat the lead, but the Miami coaching staff didn’t realise that and had called timeout just prior to it. This costed them the game, as in the next OT, they lost the game by 4 points.

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All five of the Raptors’ starters played 53+ minutes tonight 🤯

That’s the first time a team has had five players go for 50+ minutes in a game in the Shot Clock era (since 1954-55).

(via @EliasSports) pic.twitter.com/lfXZOv1q97

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 30, 2022

The Toronto Raptors were 2019 finalists – they currently stand 8th in the Eastern conference because of inconsistent performances

After Kawhi Leonard left them for the Clipper in the 2019-20 season, many predicted correctly that the Raptors would struggle to replicate the success. While they are brilliant in sections, the championship winning team was not there. Kyle Lowry did rally the troops for the last two seasons, but after switching to the Heat for 2021-22 season, all the onus is now on FVV and Siakam.

Nick Nurse has begun to reconstruct his roster to make a deep play off run, but currently sitting at 8th with a thin roster, it looks like this year would not be the case for that. They however have the frontrunner for the rookie of the year in Scottie Barnes, who’s playing way better than his experience suggests. Extremely mature for his age, the raptor fans must be excited to see how he develops.

VanVleet may be hard done by not making the all-star starters this year, but he definitely should make the reserve list. Absolutely on a tear this season, his performances single handedly won the Raptors a lot of games. He may not feature on anyone’s MVP list, but to Canada, he definitely is their MVP.

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